It is true that in the textile trade these distinctions are not always or even generally observed; and it is true also that three types of merchandise sometimes are made side by side and sold through the same channels. But these facts do not alter the fundamentally distinct character of the selling problems which these three types of goods present. Cotton, wool, silk, artificial silk, linen, or other fibers are used in making fabrics belonging to each of these three types; but the price ranges between cotton fabrics and silk fabrics are not greater than those between extreme style and extreme staple types of fabric made from any one of these fibers.
Perhaps the importance of the distinction between these three types of goods can be made clear by drawing a parallel from another field where creative ability is a recognized factor in establishing values. Suppose it were true that paintings by the greatest living artists, popular-priced color prints, or other reproductions of well-known pictures and artists’ materials such as canvas and paints were all called “art works” and all distributed through identical channels; and suppose there were traditions or trade customs which resulted in these three types of merchandise being more often than not regarded as on the same price footing.
The absurdity of such a commercial supposition is obvious. And yet the marketing of textiles is in almost precisely this condition. Many of the curious anomalies of the American textile industry and trade date back over a century to the period following the War of 1812-1816. New England merchants found themselves, after peace was signed, with some available capital made in overseas trade which was then difficult to resume. During the next few years they were led to put this capital into new ventures, notable among which was the use of New England water powers to operate textile machinery.
The New England mills, thus financed, quite naturally turned over their products to these merchants for sale either as a necessary feature of the financing of the project, or “for old times’ sake”—the merchant and the mill operator being brothers, cousins, or at least old playmates. Throughout its history the “selling house” as it has figured in the American textile situation has been part banker, part merchant, and part “next friend.” Nobody resents charges of ultra-conservatism more emphatically than do some of the most settled of these selling houses. There can be no criticism of their open-mindedness on many 432 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW subjects, but in the matter of selling textiles new ideas penetrate with difficulty. There are relatively few instances in which it has been possible to take a new mill product and work out for it a marketing plan which was the fruit of the elements of the problem unmixed with traditions or financial expediency. For plain textiles sold either as a staple, or as a raw material for converters, this is perhaps not a serious matter.
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